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‘I knohat you told me,’ he said, as he tore a handful of sheets from the roll, folded them into a square and pressed it to his lip ‘But mmf mff mffer’

Holly snatched the improvised compress from his hand

‘I can’t understand a word you’re…’ She frowned ‘You’re bleeding’

Nick gave a hollow laugh ‘I told you that twenty o Heck, baby, that’s what tends to happen when you sink your fangs into somebody’s face’

‘Don’t call me that,’ Holly said quickly She turned on the faucet Itsound, spat out a few drops of water, and went dry

‘Don’t call you what?’

‘Baby’ She grasped his chin, put the folded paper towel to her lips to moisten it, and dabbed at the cut on his mouth ‘I don’t like it I never did’

‘Seems to me there was a time you liked it a lot’

Her gaze flew to his His eyes were locked on hers, and what she saw in their hazel depths—the sharedpassion—made her heartbeat stumble

‘Well,’ she said, lying through her teeth because he was right, there’d been a tiravelly whisper of his, had been enough to ’

Nick’s jaw tightened ‘Yeah’ He jerked the compress from her hand, balled it up and tossed it into the sink ‘I rong about a lot of things’ He looked at her again Even in the near-darkness, she could see the arrogant little smile that tilted across his lips ‘But not about what happened a few o’

‘That I beat you up, you mean?’

‘That you were rip of a guy who’d just broken into her house’

Holly felt the colour bloom in her cheeks ‘I’m sure you’d like to think so But I wasn’t cooperative, I was shocked’

‘Shocked,’ he said, folding his arms

‘Of course You took me completely by surprise’

‘You’re telling , scares you senseless, then grabs you and kisses you, shock will make you kiss him back?’

‘No! Certainly not’ Holly glared up at him ‘I e…’ She stopped and cleared her throat ‘Look, you’re twisting this thing around to suit yourself All I’ a woman to kiss him to what happened just now’

Nick gave an evil chuckle Oh, hell Holly had all she could do to keep froone for it She’d walked right into that one

‘Okay,’ she said coldly, ‘your lip’s stopped bleeding It’s tioodbye’

‘Goodbye,’ he said, and opened the freezer